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I am now in the final week of my July fund-raising campaign for Behind the Black, celebrating its 14th anniversary. Thank you all, from the people who have donated small amounts to those who have given large sums. I cannot truly express how much your support means to me.

 

The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.

 

Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to recognize this reality.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.

 

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Paper: Not one government policy during the COVID epidemic accomplished anything to stop the disease’s spread

The modern scientific method
What governments believe, even when there
is no evidence to justify it.

In reviewing the many different government actions taken during the COVID epidemic aimed at slowing the spread of the virus, scientists have found that none of these policies accomplished anything.

No matter how we approached these questions, the primary finding was lack of definitive patterns that could support claims about governmental policy impacts. About half the time, government policies were followed by better Covid-19 outcomes, and half of the time they were not. The findings were sometimes contradictory, with some policies appearing helpful when tested one way, and the same policy appearing harmful when tested another way. No claims about the relationship between government responses and pandemic outcomes held generally. Looking at stay-at-home policies and school closures, about half the time it looked like Covid-19 outcomes improved after their imposition, and half the time they got worse. Every policy, Covid-19 outcome, time period, and modeling approach yielded a similar level of uncertainty: about half the time it looked like things got better, and half the time like things got worse.

…Yet scientists used these data to make definitive conclusions.

Claims that government responses made Covid-19 worse are not broadly true, and the same goes for claims that government responses were useless or ineffective. Claims that government responses help reduce the burden of Covid-19 are also not true. What is true is that there is no strong evidence to support claims about the impacts of the policies, one way or the other.


The bottom line — which has been obvious from day one of the panic — is that any claims of certain knowledge and success by any government official was a lie. This was especially true — and noted here and in numerous conservative news sites repeatedly — when government agencies like the CDC would willy-nilly change its guidelines even though there had been no additional published research justifying those changes.

The best example was the CDC’s guidelines on masks. For decades health agencies clearly stated, based on actual research going back almost a century, that masks were not only useless but a risk for those with heart and lung conditions. Suddenly, with no further data, the guidelines were changed and masks were the best thing since sliced bread.

Similarly the guidelines on social distancing would change over and over again, even though there was literally no data to support that measure, and continues to be none (as now admitted by Anthony Fauci this week when pressed during congressional hearings). In fact, no research was ever done, and it appears the idea of social distancing actually came from a high school science fair project that the entire edifice of government petty dictators glommed onto in glee.

All of this raises a more fundamental question: Why do so many people so quickly accept government claims, on anything? And why do so many people continue to assume these same dishonest government officials can fix any problem?

Government officials generally know little about anything, other than how to tell others what to do. Such people are the last people we should ask for advice.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. Or you can buy it directly from the author and get an autographed copy.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

14 comments

  • MDN

    The only reason covid was weaponized by the left was because it was the one and only issue that stuck in any meaningful way to Donald John Trump.

    When they first saw that it worked I think they were surprised, got a. little high, and loved it. But when they saw how much power they could grab through it they developed a full on addiction.

    All of MAGA was cast as bad while Joe and the Ds were our saviors. Billions could be shoveled to political interest groups in plain sight and called virtue. A national emergency justified outright censorship of opinions rhey didn’t like, and then of people they feared politically. And finally they realized they could force an instant transition to mail in ballots, extend the election to last a month, target hundreds of millions into nag-out-the-vote efforts through the generosity of Mark Zuckerberg and others, legalize partisan vote harvesting, and eliminate virtually all ballot integrity measures such that we processed 10 times as many mail in ballots as ever before with a 10 times lower rejection rate than ever seen. It was a miracle!

    And when this power grab succeeded the addict could not get enough so has governed to their fantasy agenda ever since. To the government money is free. Police are bad. Boys can be girls and men can get pregnant. And anyone who disagrees with you is a racist or a homophobe or a misogynist if not all 3.

    All because Orange Man Bad.

    Very sad.

  • Mitch S.

    Wasn’t surprising that people accepted gov’t claims regarding covid. After all it wasn’t about politics, it was about a threat to everyone.
    And it wasn’t presented by politicians, it was presented by “non-partisan” career health professionals, What possible nefarious agenda could they have, particularly the grandfatherly Dr Fauci.
    But now those who don’t live in the left wing “bubble”, may be more hesitant to fork over their trust.
    Not just a matter of Fauci lying about “The Science”, but we now know it was Fauci and his partner that funded the illegal research in the Wuhan lab that created Covid. Then not only did Fauci and crew engage in a misinformation campaign to hide their crime, we now find out they managed to make millions off the crisis they created.
    He belongs in jail (The ICC is going after Netanyahu over the deaths of 30,000 Gazans during battle, how bout they go after a man who killed millions and profited from it?).

  • GWB

    none of these policies accomplished anything.
    Oh, I disagree. They accomplished a lot. Just none of it was either good or what they claimed to be achieving.

    Biggest achievement? They confirmed that way too many Americans are willing to subordinate their freedom and living to some fear because of “experts.”

  • GWB

    yielded a similar level of uncertainty: about half the time it looked like things got better, and half the time like things got worse
    In the science and statistics realm, we call this “random.” It’s not a good look for a “scientific” outcome.

  • Andi

    Regarding elections, an interesting observation:

    During the recent election in Mexico, one of the news channels showed the inside of a polling place as people came in to vote. The voter would approach the officials’ desk and hand over an ID. The official would then look at the ID, then up at the person to see if the picture matched, then would compare the ID to a book of images of ID cards to see if the ID presented matched the actual ID issued by the government. Only then would the official hand over the ballot, which the voter then took into the booth.

    I didn’t see what happened after that, but I assume that the voter inserted the ballot into a box that (hopefully) underwent similar precautions.

    Now THAT’s the way to run an election!

  • wayne

    Andi-
    I’m on the west coast of Michigan.
    To vote, I have to fill out & sign a small slip of paper declaring my name, address, and birthdate, and that I am lawfully registered to vote in this precinct.
    I take that paper to another table where my driver’s license is electronically scanned, then my name & address is physically matched to a printed master list of registered voters in my precinct. If everything is cool, they collect the signed paper and give me a paper ballot to vote. Take the completed ballot and feed it into the OCR machine.

  • James Street

    Don’t forget the dancing nurses
    https://t.ly/OUbRT
    (1 minute dancing nurses video)

    Communism: always one murder away from utopia
    https://t.ly/G92AM

  • Rufus mcfarland

    ..one murder more..then it’s being done well..

  • Andi

    In the People’s Republic of Maryland, you walk into the polling place, tell the worker (usually a high-school kid) your name, address, and date of birth (and party affiliation if it’s a primary). They mark you on a computer screen as having voted print out a scrap of paper, ask you to validate the data on it and sign it. They then give you your ballot.

    After voting, you walk over to the OCR machine and feed the ballot in. It keeps the ballot in case there is a recount.

    No ID, no verification that you are who you say you are.

  • Max

    In Utah it’s mostly mail in ballots with no ID needed just a signature that is worthless because they usually have the signature verification turned off.

    Voting like they do in Mexico?
    “Mexico’s largest elections have also been the most violent in modern history, with the killing of 38 candidates, including a local candidate who was fatally shot on Saturday night”
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-03/mexcian-ruling-party-claims-victory-for-claudia-sheinbaum/103926490

    Sounds like the last person still standing is the winner?

    As for “nothing the government did stopped the spread”
    A Radio talkshow host going over the news reported that the United nations “world health organization” (WHO) just adopted terms in their quest for power to shut down and take over the economy during a pandemic or climate crisis. Force people to get shots or they will deny their human rights, and suspend all elections.
    He said it was on their webpage, so I looked and looked and my brain felt like a car high centered with the wheels spinning in mud… Although I found numerous references to the covid 19 model and methods only with more contact tracing and control over workers including forcing them to sleep at the worksite with masks and social distancing enforced. Digital currency to tax directly for all services, control how people spend and a lot of talk of public private partnership‘s and sustainable development, build back better, equity, governance and whatever.
    https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/351721/9789240040892-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
    Here’s a sample sentence;
    “prompt decision-making for policy making and implementation at local levels. These should be both socially acceptable as well as evidence based. Some legislative structures adopted in specific emergency response contexts (e.g., for COVID-19) should also be extended to all-hazard preparedness.”

    This tells me that COVID-19, as badly as it was handled, was just an excuse for a different purpose… A vehicle to commit human rights abuses in an end run around the constitution and private property rights. (if you do not own your own body, then you own nothing)
    It’s not that they “accomplished anything to stop the spread”, it was not relevant to their purposes. The fake bird flu (or the back up plan of war) will provide an opportunity to double down on permanent control and population reduction in the name of saving the planet.
    They must destroy it all, before they can “build it back better” The only way they can have “zero carbon economy” is with “zero carbon consumers.”

  • COURT DECLARES: COVID / mRNA “VAX” NOT A VACCINE

    Gateway Pundit: “The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has delivered a seismic decision that could reshape public health policy across the nation.”

    “In a contentious case involving the Health Freedom Defense Fund and other plaintiffs versus the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the court has declared that mRNA COVID-19 injections do not qualify as vaccines under traditional medical definitions.”

    https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/court-declares-covid—mrna-vax-not-a-vaccine

  • James Street

    This is a cool tribute to people who withstood the severe pressure to get the jab:

    From Infowars: A Message To The Unvaccinated
    https://rumble.com/v50dyrn-from-infowars-a-message-to-the-unvaccinated.html
    (4 minute video)

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